The Irish Embassy in Washington D.C. contacted a United States senator to raise concerns over his call for more than 1,100 at-risk jobs at Bausch + Lomb in Waterford to be moved to New York.

The Irish Times and Irish Examiner both reported the high-level intervention, made at the request of Waterford Government TD John Deasy.

The Irish Ambassador to the US, Anne Anderson, confirmed in a letter to the Fine Gael Deputy that, at his behest, the Embassy in Washington contacted the New York office of Democrat senator Charles ‘Chuck’ Schumer.

This followed Mr Schumer’s call for jobs at Bausch + Lomb in Waterford – currently the subject of negotiations between management and unions – to be relocated to Rochester, New York, where the company also has an operation.

Ambassador Anderson told Mr Deasy: “The Embassy has been in touch with Senator Schumer’s office to draw attention to the sensitivity of this issue, the ongoing negotiations between management, the employees and their unions, and the concern that these jobs be safeguarded in Ireland.”

Mr Schumer had revealed he had “called the CEO of [parent company] Valeant and urged him to move that work and those jobs to Rochester”.

In a press release to this effect, he also said that, after his phone call with Valeant chief executive J. Michael Pearson, he was “confident that Rochester will have a great shot at adding work and jobs from the potential closure of the Ireland plant”.

However, though Mr Pearson subsequently assured Waterford employees in a memo that Bausch + Lomb was committed to maintaining its presence in the city – provided the company got the €20million in cutbacks it wanted – Deputy Deasy was furious at Senator Schumer’s “sneaky” actions.

In a letter to the Ambassador, Mr Deasy said he found Mr Schumer’s media release “unbelievably distasteful”. Having separately condemned the Senator’s “pathetic” attempt to “impoverish” Irish workers, the Waterford Deputy suggested to the Embassy, “I think the Irish Government should express its disgust as well.”

Mr Deasy, who worked as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill before returning to pursue a career in Irish politics, said that, as a former employee of the Senate, “I never thought that a U.S. senator would act in such an underhand manner.”

He asked the Ambassador, “I would appreciate if you would communicate my disgust at the way he and his office are behaving as it pertains to the Bausch + Lomb workforce in Waterford City.”He added: “I think the Irish Embassy should communicate to Senator Schumer that it would be better if he allowed those negotiations to conclude before issuing any press statements.”

Explaining why he took such offence, Mr Deasy said: “We all fight for our constituencies, but ringing a company CEO to impoverish Irish workers is pathetic. Senator Schumer likes to portray himself as a friend of Ireland. I hope Irish-Americans in New York get to hear about his sneakiness. He has peddled his Schumer visas for Irish people for years. Irish-American voters have just got an insight into how he works.”